HuSH NoW QuIeT NoW
by Beyond Ordinary
Summary: "'It's very strange,' Fluttershy murmured. 'Everything...seems dark. And at night...there are shadows...and voices that speak to me, endlessly...' Doctor Hooves looked at her face and was disturbed. Her eyes were dark and lightless. He had seen the same eyes before...on a patient, just before their dying breath."
1. HuSH NoW QUiET NoW

AAT 

**HuSh NoW QuIeT NoW**

by ~AstraltheNightWolf

"I've been having a lot of trouble lately, Doctor..."

Doctor Hooves' ear flicked lightly, trying to dismiss the comment but knowing it was impossible. The remark would settle in his mind, and begin to stir around with the so many others that had been said, and eventually root there forever. It would pry at him for the rest of the day- the rest of the week- troubling him throughout time and tearing holes in his schedule. He looked sadly at the patient in the chair and wondered how he had gotten himself into this.

If this wasn't enough, he was supposed to write everything his patients said on a notepad so he could study them later. Doctor Hooves had never really had anyone come in for therapy, but that was before. For the past few months he'd been standing rigidly by this patient's side, trying to nurse her back to health. But so far nothing was working. It was as if all the methods honed for the past years were useless and ineffective. He couldn't figure out why; they had always worked before.

But he hadn't expected this pony to come in, not in the least. She was the last pony he'd ever expected to have problems. She was timid, but that didn't need fixing. The timidness was an admirable characteristic, enabling kindness in her heart. She was always avidly cheered up by the simplest of things, but now it seemed...she was becoming less and less, with each visit, her body toned down, the look of soft worry more detectable in her delicate features. The pale yellow-coated pony sitting in the chair, a slender wing of pink hair partially obscuring her face. Her wide eyelash-frayed eyes waiting expectantly for an answer.

Fluttershy blinked, then repeated herself. "I've been having a lot of trouble lately..." She sat back on the chair, her shoulders scrunched. "I've never had this problem before...but it's bad. Everything's so empty, and it feels like there's nothing I can do, and no one to help me..." Her front hooves rose, and covered her eyes. "I just don't know what to do..."

Doctor Hooves watched in exasperation as Fluttershy's cheeks became wet, glistening with tears. He'd gone through this routine many times before, the same problems every single visit. He'd tried every single remedy there was, made so many prescriptions he was running out of paper. It had come to a point where he was now making suggestions that weren't even valid in doctoring. That was the least of it...what scared him is that Fluttershy came back each time, her conditions only worsening, more symptoms. She wasn't getting cured, whatever it was she had. That scared him, too. No matter how many times he and his assistants took a look at her, they couldn't find anything wrong. Only that she was depressed, and frightened, for no reason whatsoever.

He sighed, ripping out a sheet of notebook paper from his pad. "Tell me again what your problems are."

Fluttershy removed her hooves from her face, revealing red, puffy eyes. "I don't know," she said, hiccuping. "All I know is that for the past few months, the tiniest little things get to me. I've never realized how much they get to me. It's just...I feel like I have no purpose, and that everyone hates me and takes advantage of me. Just because I'm shy."

Doctor Hooves could see why people would want to manipulate her, but he chose not to tell her that. He didn't want to risk anything. But this is what she had been telling him for week upon week. He exhaled noisily, clicking his pen impatiently.

"We're going to need more details, Fluttershy," he said in annoyance. "Come on...I'm a doctor, and you can't hide anything from me, or you won't get better. Explain to me, so I can understand."

Fluttershy reached for a tissue box positioned near her, lifting out a thin sheet and dabbing her eyes with it. "Well..." she said, looking hesitant. "I...I don't know why, but...I feel like my friends hate me. I think that my shyness really irritates them, and they only use me because they have to. Because I'm one of the Elements of Harmony." More tears leaked from her eyes and made sleek trails down her face. "It's...awful. I can't be around them without feeling miserable."

"But why do you feel that way?"

She sniffed. For a moment, she looked uncertain, her eyes narrowing to slits. "I don't know," she said softly. "I really can't say why."

Doctor Hooves scribbled down on the paper. At least she was saying something different than the last few times. "Anything else?"

Fluttershy looked down. "Well...I'm not sure...I don't think it's really a reason..."

"It doesn't matter. Tell me anyway; it might benefit."

Fluttershy concentrated hard, searching the recesses of her mind. Doctor Hooves examined her face, and was slightly disturbed. Her eyes were dark and lightless, with a glazed film over the ordinarily glossy green irises. Doctor Hooves had seen similiar eyes before, on a patient just before their dying breath. But she spoke, her voice so low it was barely audible. "It's very strange," she murmured. "Everything...seems dark. And at night...there are shadows...and voices that speak, endlessly, endlessly..."

Doctor Hooves felt a shiver run from his neck to the base of his spine. Voices...maybe she had schizophrenia. He could have sworn she had already had a brain scan, and there was nothing wrong...but maybe he was mistaken. Maybe that had been another patient.

But whatever was happening to his patient, it was frightening. The cloudiness in her eyes wasn't normal. There was something behind it- a sickness, or a disease- but Dr. Hooves didn't know. Though he had other patients- one who was just a filly, and had lost her leg- another who had lung disease and needed a lung extraction- but every day, his mind would settle back on Fluttershy. Why he worried about her, he didn't know. He cleared his mind and clicked the pen closed, placing his notepad on the desk behind him.

"Alright, Fluttershy, time's up," he said tiredly. "I have an appointment. Someone who needs leg braces installed. I can't be late- report your progress back to me next time, okay?"

Fluttershy nodded, almost mechanically, the tear trails on her face glimmering. Without another word she slid off the chair and walked towards the door, her step slow and sluggish. As she left, Dr. Hooves could hear her murmuring to herself.

"Darkness...why is everything so dark?"

He shuddered.

* * *

"Come on, Pinkie, let's go."

Applejack turned around to stare at the pink pony, who was carefully balancing a plate of pastries on her head. The plate held at least ten cupcakes, all strategically placed and uniquely decorated. Pinkie Pie wobbled around, trying to keep from falling.

"I'm trying, Applejack!" Pinkie protested, her front legs buckling. "It's a lot harder than it looks, you know. If I make one wrong move, all these beautiful cupcakes I made are going to toppling to the ground. Whoosh!" The pink pony made a gesture with her hoof to show her. "Splat! And that won't be good, because we'll never be able to deliver them, and if I don't deliver them, then the pony who's supposed to get them will be very sa..."

"Pinkie!" Applejack interrupted, shaking her blonde mane. "Let me do it. I had these made especially for Fluttershy, and I don't want them gettin' messed up." She trotted over to Pinkie Pie and swiped them from atop her head, attaching them to the saddlebag on her back. "Come on, now...we ain't got any time to spare."

Pinkie Pie sproinged forward, skipping happily after the Earth pony. "Whee! This is gonna be so fun!" she exclaimed. Her curly magenta tail bounced lightly in the summer breeze. "Just you and me, making a special cupcake delivery to Fluttershy." She giggled joyously.

Applejack shrugged, not cheered up by Pinkie Pie's sprightly mood. She was too busy thinking, and too suspicious. Her thoughts, in fact, were about why she was making the cupcake delivery in the first place.

"Now," she said firmly to Pinkie Pie, "I want you to be extra-nice to Fluttershy when we deliver these, okay? And extra-careful...you don't want to go an' knock over her furniture like last time. She ain't been feelin' too well lately, so...just try not to be too...Pinkie today. Alright?"

Pinkie Pie nodded, not relenting from her jubilant skipping. "You got it, A.J.! I Pinkie Promise!" She mimed sticking a cupcake into her eye, nodding in consent.

Applejack turned back around, treading slowly in the direction of Fluttershy's house. She really had no idea whether or not Fluttershy was feeling well, but she wouldn't bet on her being very happy. Every Tuesday morning, 11:30, Fluttershy would slip off somewhere, looking like all was lost. Applejack wasn't usually very nosy- she was the Element of Honesty, after all...but she couldn't help herself. Fluttershy in distress was one of the things that she couldn't stand. Last week she had followed Fluttershy during her weekly slip-off, and tracked her to the hospital. Watching from the doorway, Applejack watched her trudge into the room where therapy sessions were held. It made Applejack itch wondering why Fluttershy would go to therapy. So to cheer her up, she had Pinkie Pie bake these cupcakes for her. Well, that and she felt guilty about following Fluttershy. Doing something nosy and not telling was as good as lying to Applejack.

Soon Fluttershy's tree-house came into view. Usually there were animals all around it- chickens pecking in the yard, cotton-tailed bunnies hopping through the grass, foxes yipping brightly at her doorstep, bluebirds singing sweet songs at her window- but today all the animals were absent. Or at least silencing themselves. Applejack spotted a few plump songbirds settled into their nests, looking desolate.

"Well then," Applejack muttered. "That's mighty strange..."

Pinkie Pie, being Pinkie Pie, was oblivious to this fact and hopped right up to the doorstep. "Come on, Applejack!" she chirped. "The sooner Fluttershy gets the cupcakes the sooner we can eat them together! Even the gloomiest day can be made a little sweeter by Pinkie Pie's special cupcakes. No other cupcakes are quite like mine, you know. I use special ingredients that no other pony uses! And also, my cupcakes have a lot of..."

Pinkie Pie went chattering on about the superiority of her pastries as Applejack walked up to the door and pressed the doorbell. Inside the doorbell sounded, echoing in the massive hollow trunk of the tree.

The two waited for the door to open, but it didn't. There weren't even any hoofsteps behind the door. Applejack squinted at the door, tapping her hoof.

"That's unusual," she observed. "Fluttershy's always real quick to answerin' doors..."

Pinkie Pie shrugged. "Maybe she isn't home. Oh well! I guess we have to eat these cupcakes by ourselves." Pinkie Pie reached for one of the cupcakes sitting on the plate, but Applejack pushed her hoof away.

"Nuh-uh. Not so fast, Pinkie...Fluttershy's always home at this time of day."

Applejack set the plate of cupcakes down by the doorstep and walked down the porch, circling around the house to Fluttershy's window. It was closed. Usually she would have it open so she could hear the birds, but today it was shut tight. Looking closer, though, Applejack noted that it was not locked, and Fluttershy always locked up before she left her house. It was a habit of hers- she was paranoid about things like that.

"Well...if we cain't get 'er to open the door, we're just gonna hafta bust in."

Pinkie Pie stopped leaping. She looked half surprised, half awed. "But...wouldn't that be like a robbery?"

"Pinkie...it's not a robbery unless you steal somethin'. And we ain't gonna do that, 'cause stealin' is bad, and Fluttershy's our friend. Fluttershy would always answer her door. And I'm gonna find out what's eatin' her if it's the last thing I do."

Applejack walked up the doorstep again, turning the doorknob experimentally. It was loose, just like she had suspected. She pushed the door open and walked inside. Unlike the outdoors, there were a few animals, but there was a notable difference in these animals. Around Fluttershy animals were always energetic and zealous, but the few that were inside looked worried. A few bunnies, a handful of sparrows, and two kittens were seated at the edge of the stairwell, tugging nervously at their ears and tails. As Applejack and Pinkie Pie walked in, they turned their heads to look at them and made small, crestfallen sounds.

Pinkie Pie's good mood had finally been pushed through, and now she looked around in perplexion. "Where's Fluttershy?" she said quizzically. She walked around the room, her head switching to and fro. "Where are all the animals? Fluttershy's house is ALWAYS filled with animals."

Applejack approached a drawer with a lamp on top. The surface had a fine layer of dust on it, as if it hadn't been dusted in days.

"The animals're always dustin' things," Applejack mumbled. She turned to Pinkie, who was patting one of the little bunnies on the head. "Where did they all go?"

Applejack looked up the stairwell. All the doors were closed, and all the lights were turned off. She stepped over the gathering of animals and up the creaky stairs, her long blonde tail flicking behind her.

"Ooh, are we gonna explore?" Pinkie squeaked. She bounded after Applejack, reaching the top of the stairs before her. "We can find Fluttershy and find out where all her animals went. And then we can cheer her up with cupcakes."

Applejack follwed Pinkie through the upstairs of Fluttershy's tree-house, getting more suspicious by the minute. Nothing seemed right. Why would Fluttershy be so depressed? She was never depressed. She cried sometimes, but over little things. She got angry sometimes, and she was shy, but never depressed. Even when she cried her animals were there to cheer her up. So what was wrong now?

Applejack navigated through the hallways until she came across Fluttershy's room. It too was closed, but no sound was coming from it. Applejack hated to intrude, but she couldn't leave things the way they were. Turning the doorknob, she pushed open the door and burst into Fluttershy's room.

She had expected Fluttershy to be sitting there, crying. But the pony who was sitting there on the bed- was it really Fluttershy? The pale yellow coat, once the color of butter, looked faded. In fact, everything in the room looked gray. Fluttershy was sitting with her legs folded under her, staring at her pillow- no, THROUGH her pillow...at something that wasn't there. Even upon Applejack's arrival, she didn't look up.

"Uh...hi there, Fluttershy," Applejack said. She shifted her hooves. The room was cold, and not only that, but there was a certain air to it that made Applejack uncomfortable. She wanted to step out, talk somewhere brighter. But by the look of it, Fluttershy didn't plan on moving.

At Applejack's words, Fluttershy's head turned lethargically towards her. Applejack stifled a yelp. Those weren't Fluttershy's eyes, she knew. They were as faded as everything else, dark and hollow. The pupils were enlarged, almost engulfing the green part. She felt like dark holes were staring at her, into her...penetrating her soul. She had to look away.

"Uh...so...sorry for botherin' ya...but uh...we were just wonderin', if you were feelin' well..." Applejack fought to keep a smile on her face.

Fluttershy didn't move. She didn't even blink. But she opened her mouth, just barely, and spoke in a tone even softer than usual.

"You came to make fun of me, didn't you?" she whispered.

Applejack perked up. She looked at Fluttershy, avoiding her eyes. "Wha...what?"

Fluttershy's head tilted a little. "You came to tease me. About being the way I am. About how I'm so shy, and the only friends I have are animals." Her mouth curved up in a tiny, barely detectable smile. "That's what you came for...right?"

Applejack blinked. She shook her head, wincing. "I...I don't know what you're talkin' about..."

Suddenly, Fluttershy flung herself from the bed. Behind Applejack, Pinkie Pie squealed. Fluttershy moved in sudden flashes, so fast Applejack couldn't keep up with her. And then she was in Applejack's face, looming toward her, her teeth bared and her pupils shrunken in rage.

"DON'T LIE TO ME!" Fluttershy screamed. "BECAUSE THAT'S ALL YOU DO! YOU PRETEND TO BE SO HONEST, BUT YOU'RE A FILTHY LIAR! JUST LIKE THE REST OF THEM! ALL PRETENDING TO BE MY FRIEND, JUST SO THEY CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ME!"

Applejack backed up, biting her lip. She had never seen Fluttershy so angry. And what she was saying made no sense to her. She looked at Pinkie Pie, who was backed up against the wall, whimpering. She turned back towards Fluttershy, trying to be as sincere as possible. "Fluttershy, calm down...I just wanted to come here to see if you were alright!"

Fluttershy flew from side to side, in flashes that made Applejack dizzy. "SHUT UP!" she shrieked, knocking a lamp to the floor with a crash. "I'm fed up with you lying to me! All of you! You always yell at me and act like I'm worthless! You even came into my house without asking! What kind of a friendship is that?" Fluttershy tore the curtains from her window, and tossed them away. "I'M SICK OF YOU! STAY AWAY FROM ME! I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU MANIPULATE ME ANYMORE!"

With that, she zipped up towards the door, and slammed it in Applejack's face.

It was silent for a while, the only sound in the hallway being Pinkie's high-pitched whimpers. Applejack breathed heavily, not believing what had just happened. What was all that she had been talking about? Manipulating her? Applejack didn't know what to think.

Pinkie Pie was sniffling. "That was scary," she whimpered. "Maybe Fluttershy's angry at something we did. Do you think...that maybe we were mean to her?"

Applejack considered that for a moment, but she shook her head. "No," she said sharply. "It's not our fault, Pinkie. Did you see her eyes? Did you see HER? That ain't right. She was different, Pinkie...there's something wrong with her. She's sick."

Pinkie Pie sniffed, rubbing her eyes. "I'm not hungry anymore."

Applejack sighed. "You have a right not to be. But we can't leave Fluttershy like that. We have to call Dr. Hooves."

***

Assistant Ditzy was in The Doctor's office, looking at herself in the mirror. It was something she often did, looking at herself. She observed that she had a nice fur color, gray-blue, and a nice mane- blonde. Something she was proud of. But it was her face- her eyes, specifically, that made her cringe.

Ever since she was born she'd been made fun of. She had amblyopia, or lazy eye, causing one of her irises to drift into a corner. It gave her a cross-eyed look, one that would not do nicely in the pony world. She was mercilessly made fun of most of her school life, being called "Derpy" and "Nerdy Derpy" because she liked science and math. Her only friend was a colt named Edward T. Hooves. Even then he liked to be addressed Dr. Hooves because he thought it sounded more official. He was also studying the concept of time travel, thus producing an hourglass mark on his flank. They immediately became close friends, and thereafter the bullies who jeered her saw them as a married couple even though he was three years older. They began to call her "Derpy Hooves". A nerd with a lazy eye and a close affiliation with a colt who wanted to travel through time. Not exactly something that'd win you any popularity contests.

As they grew older, their outlooks began to change. Ditzy Doo advanced in chemistry (earning her the bubbles on her flank). Dr. Hooves did a few time travel rounds with the help of some of his unicorn friends, but became a doctor when he found that a local town called Ponyville was in need of a doctor. He still was a doctor and now Ditzy was his assistant, mostly doing virus examinations in the lab and trying to find disease cures. They had grown to be the best of the best of friends. They had grown so close that Ditzy admitted being called "Ditzy Hooves" wouldn't be such a bad thing.

She was still looking in the mirror when she heard hoofsteps behind her. She whirled around, her hoof automatically flying upwards to cover her bad eye. She caught a glimpse of Dr. Hooves' dark-brown mane. "Dr. Hooves!" she exclaimed. "I...uh...I was just..."

Dr. Hooves waved his hoof at her. "It doesn't matter what you were doing." He looked at the hoof concealing her eye. "Why do you keep doing that whenever someone walks in?"

Ditzy snorted. "You know why," she huffed. "Even the nurses can't take me seriously looking like this. I look like an idiot, you know, with this eye of mine. Everyone who looks at me thinks I'm stupid and hideous."

Dr. Hooves snorted back. He walked up to her and pushed her hoof away from her face. "You are not stupid, and you are not ugly," he said crisply. "You're very pretty. Okay?" He walked over to his desk and sat down, exhaling deeply.

A blush spread across Ditzy's face. He thinks I'm pretty? she thought in bewilderment. And not only that, he said VERY...

Dr. Hooves riffled some papers on his desk, looking for his notepad. "Hmm...nope, not here...say, have you seen my notepad? I thought I put it here..."

Assistant Ditzy, still recovering, turned toward him. "You mean the therapy notes? You've only used that once today. When you were with Fluttershy."

Dr. Hooves groaned. "I know, I know. I can't stop thinking about her and I don't know why. It just bothers me for some reason that she's so depressed and we can't figure anything out. And if that weren't enough, two pony friends of hers just came now and are telling me to fix her. I've been trying to fix her for eight goddamn weeks! What more do they want me to do?" He tossed some papers aside, and some of them floated to the floor.

Ditzy went over and scooped them up. Despite Dr. Hooves' point, she could only think about what he had said. About how he couldn't stop thinking about her. It was as if he were in love with the Pegasus. And it made Ditzy feel jealous. She knew why, and she cursed herself for being so selfish.

"It takes more than eight weeks to cure a depressed patient, Dr..."

Dr. Hooves scooped up some more papers, finally uncovering his notepad. "I know, I know. But patients usually get better in that amount of time. But no...Fluttershy's only gotten worse. It keeps progressing and progressing, and today she came in looking like a ghost. I'm serious. I'm beginning to think it's more than depression, but I don't know what, and I'm really worried about her..." He got a faraway look in his eyes.

The envy surged up in Ditzy's chest. "Oh. I see. You're so worried about one patient of yours? Well, what's so special about her?" It slipped off her tongue before she could stop it.

Dr. Hooves rolled his eyes. "Oh, get real, Ditz. I'm not in love with her. And why would you care, anyway?" He turned away, carrying his notepad in his mouth.

"Because you have me."

Dr. Hooves stopped. He turned around, dropping the notes, looking at Assistant Ditzy. "I know I do."

"So why do you act like we're just friends?" Assistant Ditzy blinked. She felt so naive, and so childish. Like a filly. She didn't know why she was telling him all this. "We've known each other all our lives. So why are we just friends?"

Dr. Hooves' anger left him, leaving him sympathetic and soft-hearted. "We aren't just friends. It's a lot more than that."

"Then why didn't you tell me?"

The stallion stepped towards her and kissed her on the forehead. "Because I didn't know you felt that way, Ditz." He turned around, picking the notepad back up and departing through the doorway.

"I'll be back in a minute, okay? I gotta take care of these ponies out here."

Assistant Ditzy nodded, even though he couldn't see her. She was unable to speak, she was so happy.

She had been called Derpy all her life, but this was worth it. It was worth it to love someone, and be loved back.

***

"Fluttershy..."

It started out as a whisper. Soft, without any identifiable voice. Gentle, almost innocent.

"Fluttershy..."

Then two voices. Echoing after each other, now a sharp hiss.

"Fluttershy..."

Loud. Booming, a crowd of voices reaching towards her.

"Fluttershy...Fluttershy...Fluttershy...Fluttershy..."

Chanting now. Icy voices, so many of them, pulling at her, tugging at her, with freezing hands.

Fluttershy tossed and turned. She couldn't be free of them. The voices turned to ice, black, thick ice curling over her and tearing at her skin and stabbing her and ripping her and...

...and then she awoke.

She looked around her. The room was empty, and no hands could be seen. The voices had stopped, but she could still hear them echoing in her head. And all over her body, she was racked with pain, unlike any she had ever felt before.

She tried to remember what had happened. She remembered yelling. She remembered ripping the curtains, and knocking things over and throwing things. Yes, she remembered all that. But why? Why was she yelling? She never yelled. She didn't like to- it was mean and cruel. The thought of her shouting at someone shook her up. Who could she have been shouting at? She searched her memories for faces.

Blonde hair, a perky face, a ginger coat...Applejack. And Pinkie Pie. Her friends. She had screamed at them and thrown things at them. Just for walking into her room.

As she remembered, the pains got sharper. She keeled over and groaned. She felt like she had been bruised, broken and battered...like every bone in her body had been snapped. She felt like her tendons had been stretched and cut, that there was acid bubbling underneath her skin. It felt like...hatred. Hatred and despair, sizzling underneath her organs where she couldn't reach them.

It was her fault. She had yelled. She had been mean...that's why she was being punished...

...But why?

The pains suddenly worsened. Fluttershy bit into her lip so hard it drew blood. She finally succumbed to mashing her face into her pillow, screaming at the top of her lungs and biting into the fat, fluffy material until the sudden spasm went away. When she could think again, she saw she had torn a hole in the pillow with her teeth, and the white pillowcase was stained with red.

Tears formed in her eyes, but she refused to let them spill. Why was this happening to her? It felt like there were a million little things underneath her skin, moving around, destroying her body at snail's pace. She had a sudden impulse to get a knife, to stab herself open, let the pain flow away...

She shook her head. No. Why was she thinking that way? She mashed her face into her pillow again and let the agony eat away at her. No matter what, she wasn't going to yell anymore. No matter how much pain she went through, she wasn't going to take it out on her friends anymore. Though she tried to stop them, the tears flooded from her eyes, and she began to sob. And with each sob, the anguish inside her increased.

Through her crying she heard a timid noise. She looked up and saw two of her pet bunnies in the doorway, concerned expressions on their faces. Normally she would feel warm and fuzzy when she saw them, but today she just wanted them to go away. To spare them her wrath.

She knew they were worried about her, and she didn't want that. She fluttered over to them, even though each flap of her wing felt like hell, and began to pat each one of them on their heads. "Shh, shh, it's okay," she whispered. "Mama's here."

She began to sing the song she always sang them. The one that they loved to hear. "Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy heads..."

But it wasn't her voice.

It was the same voices she had heard in her head in the dream.

The little bunnies covered their ears with their paws, squealing. They backed away from Fluttershy, eliciting sounds of terror, until they hopped quickly away in a fright. Running away from her, for the first time in their lives.

Fluttershy watched them go. Her vision became blurry, and the tears spilled down her face. The trails left by her tears felt like fire, sweltering flames digging into her skin. Those voices. They were inside of her, taking her over. Clouding her mind. Those many voices, that's what she was becoming.

"No..." she wailed. Her tears dripped onto the floor. But instead of being clear, they were black...a thick black liquid, like melted shadows. She stared at the drops in horror. They were beginning to move, to writhe on their own. As if they were alive.

She searched for a mirror. She dashed over to her desk, and stared at her reflection. Her eyes were diluted, dark holes. Her tear trails were sticky and black, and the blood from the cut on her lip was black. She opened her mouth, revealing a sticky black tongue. She blew her nose into a tissue. Black.

Fluttershy began to hyperventilate. "No...no...this can't be happening..." She couldn't think anymore. The pain was too much for her to handle. She yanked open a drawer and pulled out a pocket knife, sawing fiercely at her wrists. She severed her wrist artery, and where there should have been a spurt of red blood oozed a squirming spillage of black sludge. The voices suddenly became louder. They weren't in her head anymore; they were real.

"Hush now, Fluttershy, it's time to lay your sleepy head..."

Fluttershy dropped the knife, her eyes widening as the black sludge covered her arm. And at that moment, staring at her arm, something in her...

...snapped.

"Hush now..." she whispered, a smile jerking at her lips. "Quiet now..."

***

"Dr. Hooves."

The stallion turned around, staring at Assistant Ditzy. Where one might see an erratic mare with an eye mishap, he saw the most beautiful pony he had ever laid eyes on. He had thought that from the moment they'd met. But he was never brave enough to tell her until now.

Right now, Assistant Ditzy had slipped out of her lab coat and was wearing a khaki vest underneath, which is what she wore when she wasn't at work. She yawned, one of her hooves reaching towards the ceiling.

"I don't feel like working anymore today."

Dr. Hooves stared at her. Her eyes were unusually dim, half-lidded. He didn't get what she meant.

"I want to spend time with you."

Dr. Hooves blinked. "Oh, I see," he said, suddenly realizing. "But...what about Fluttershy? We're supposed to bring her in and diagnose her." He stepped over to the phone.

Ditzy waved her hoof at the phone. "Don't even try. I called her fifteen times and she didn't answer. I think she's shutting out the whole world. At this stage of depression, it's hard to tell whether or not she's going to get better."

Dr. Hooves shook his head. "I don't think she will. I think she might even get suicidal at this point...which is why I want you to bring her in. Try calling up some of her friends. They know where her house is. I think it's best if she stays overnight at the hospital, in case she gets any ideas."

"But I don't want to work!" Ditzy complained, throwing up her front legs. She laid back in the swivel chair and spun it around. "I'm too tired."

The doctor smirked. "You sound like a foal. You know that?"

Ditzy stopped spinning, looking at Dr. Hooves seriously now. "Dr...I wanted to...have dinner, or something. A nice dinner. Just you and me."

Dr. Hooves gazed at her. He felt more exhausted than ever. "I would like to do that too, but we can't. There's still so much work to do..."

The Assistant got up, abruptly kissing him. "I don't care. We need to do something together. We just confessed our love for each other- the least you can do is take the rest of the night off."

The stallion shook his head stubbornly. "Nope. Can't. Taking care of a patient is more important..."

"...more important than me?" Ditzy said. Her ears flattened. "Well, thanks a lot. I feel so much better."

Dr. Hooves swiveled his head towards her, narrowing his eyes. "You know I didn't mean it like that."

"Sure sounded that way."

He sighed. "Listen...I'll have dinner with you. 7:30 tonight. But I have business to take care of, okay?" He left her alone in the room, blowing her a kiss as he did.

He walked into his office, opening the side door for some fresh air. He leapt back in surprise- standing in the doorway was a pony. And not just any pony.

"Fluttershy!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing here? I was...I was just about to call you!"

The Pegasus shrugged, giving a little giggle. "What for? Another therapy session with you? But I don't need one. I'm all better now." She giggled again, raising her left hoof to her mouth. Her leg was heavily bandaged.

Dr. Hooves looked at her. She certainly didn't look better. She looked bony and frail, and it looked like some of her color had been scrubbed clean away. Her hair, usually straight and glossy, was frazzled. And her eyes were still dark and lightless. But she was smiling...that was good.

Fluttershy walked in, looking around. "Wow! What a nice office you have. Such a beautiful office. So tastefully decorated." She laughed and began to fly around in glee, giggling like a filly all the way.

Dr. Hooves raised one eyebrow. "But Fluttershy, you've been to my office a million times. Why are you here, anyway?"

Fluttershy sat down in the therapy chair, looking happy, but still sporting dark eyes. He looked closely at them. They were rimmed with black. He might say it was makeup, but there was something very un-makeup about it.

"I'm here because I wanted to see you," Fluttershy chirruped. "I'm always so glad to see you. Don't you know that, Dr.? You always cheer me up."

From what he'd accomplished in the past few months, Dr. Hooves didn't think he cheered Fluttershy up very much. In fact, she was acting very strange. From depressed to unusually happy- all in one afternoon. And what was the bandage? That hadn't been there before. He squinted at it, and detected a small dark stain on it. It wasn't blood. It was too black to be blood.

Fluttershy was suddenly close to him. Dr. Hooves took a couple steps backwards, nearly bumping into his desk. How had she done that? One second she was in the chair and now she was nose-to-nose with him, her dark glassy eyes set upon him.

"You've really helped me, Doctor," she whispered. Her voice sounded echoey...almost as if it had doubled. "I really like you..."

Without warning, Fluttershy closed the space between their faces and kissed him. Dr. Hooves leapt back the moment they touched. He didn't stop scrambling backwards until he was on the other side of the room, pressed against the wall. Whatever he had presumed would happen at that moment, it had certainly not been that.

"Fluttershy!" Dr. Hooves gasped. "What...why did you do that?"

The pale yellow Pegasus stood on the other side of the room, still beaming. "Because I love you, Dr.!" Fluttershy said brightly, as if it were the most obvious thing ever. "I've always loved you. You always help me and you're always there for me."

Dr. Hooves was tempted to say something drastic, but he stopped himself. He had a feeling that Fluttershy would be genuinely crushed if he did. He cleared his throat, closing his eyes for a few seconds, and tried to explain to her.

"Well, I'm flattered that you feel that way about me, Fluttershy," he said briskly. "It's really very nice. I mean, you're...pretty...and nice, and you're sweet...I'm glad that you like me."

Fluttershy jumped up. "Good!" she said lightly, clapping her hooves together. "Then we can be together."

Dr. Hooves blinked several times. He held up his front hooves. "No, Fluttershy...we can't. You don't understand..."

The pale yellow pony flashed up to him again. Her teeth were set in an eerie grin, clamped together as she spoke. "What don't I understand?" she said icily. "Is there something wrong?"

Dr. Hooves felt his heart quicken as he remembered. She was a troubled patient...she had a lot of problems. She was not one to mess with. He panicked slightly and moved away, trying to avoid the darkness of her eyes. If he were to explain properly, he had to say it directly. "Well...you see..."

"...I'm already in love with my Assistant."

This stimulated an utmost reaction in Fluttershy. The Pegasus' irises went from large to small, all in an instant. She flashed across the room, seized a glass flask from the counter, and threw it at Dr. Hooves' face. The glass shattered on impact, many of the pieces embedding into his flesh. Dr. Hooves yelped and covered his face with his hooves as blood began to stream down.

"LIAR!" Fluttershy screeched. Her voice was not her voice. It was as if something had possessed her. "YOU SAID I WAS NICE! YOU SAID YOU LOVED ME! YOU LIED! YOU LIED! YOU'RE A DIRTY LIAR, LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE!" Dr. Hooves sat scrunched in the corner, trying to stem the blood flow. The cuts from the glass were deep.

"Fluttershy, stop!" Dr. Hooves protested. But she wouldn't. She continued to throw things at him, anything she could find. The objects she threw struck his body in various places, bruising him and opening more gashes.

"I thought you were different," Fluttershy snarled. "But you're a liar, like them. You always lied! All those prescriptions you gave me, they didn't work. You LIED! You wanted to watch me suffer!" She rammed herself into a cabinet, shattering the contents within and showering the floor with glass.

Hoofsteps sounded in the hallway, and Assistant Ditzy burst inside. "What's going on in here?" she demanded. She took in the scene in front of her: Glass covering the floor, Fluttershy hovering in the air, Dr. Hooves cowering, covered in blood.

Assistant Ditzy shielded Dr. Hooves. "What the hell are you doing, Fluttershy?" Ditzy shouted. "Dr. Hooves was trying to help you!"

Fluttershy stopped. "You're the one Dr. Hooves is in love with, aren't you?" she whispered.

Ditzy adjusted her hooves. "That's none of your business," she growled.

Fluttershy opened her mouth in a smile. Ditzy and Dr. Hooves were horrified to see black tendrils crawl out from underneath her tongue, curling and lengthening.

"Oh, it IS my business." Fluttershy murmured.

"Now hush..."

***

"Has anyone seen Fluttershy?"

Applejack was looking around. She had been looking around for hours. Above her, floating on a puffy white cloud, was her friend Rainbow Dash.

"A.J., stop worrying about her. Fluttershy's the nicest pony in all of Ponyville...she wouldn't get into any trouble." The blue Pegasus chomped nonchalantly into one of Pinkie Pie's cupcakes, which had been saved from earlier that day.

"That isn't what I'm worried about, Rainbow," Applejack muttered. "I'm worried about HER. She could be anywhere right now. She could be hurt. And all you care about is snacks."

Rainbow Dash laid her head against the cloud, chewing a mouthful of cupcake. "Hey," she said. "I just think you're overreacting, that's all. Fluttershy's fine, okay? She's probably just sad because none of her animals are going near her."

Twilight Sparkle looked up from the book she was reading in the grass. "Um, Dash? I think that's the whole reason A.J.'s worried. Her animals aren't going near her...don't you think that's a little bit strange?"

"And that's only the tip of the iceberg," Applejack said. "Earlier today I walked into her house, and she started yelling on about how I wasn't really her friend and that I was always manipulatin' her. There's something wrong...I know there is...and I'm not gonna stop looking." Applejack turned away from her friends and started up one of the grassy hills.

"Wait, A.J.!" Twilight Sparkle piped up. "Where are you going? It's dangerous to leave Ponyville at night!"

Applejack glowered at the purple Earth Pony, her green eyes dim and serious. "If ya'll aren't gonna help me, then I'm just going by myself. And there ain't nothin' you can do to stop me." On that note, she began to trot up the hill, leaving grassy hoofprints in her wake.

Rainbow Dash licked the frosting from her hoof. "Do you think we should try and stop her, Twilight?"

The purple pony shook her head. "There's no stopping Applejack when she put her mind to something."

Rainbow Dash's brow furrowed. "Should we...follow her?"

Twilight shrugged. "Well...I don't know. I don't think we should. It's too dark."

Rainbow Dash's tail flicked. "Yeah, but she'll...something might happen to her, Twilight!"

Twilight laughed. "Don't be silly," Twilight laughed. "After all, what bad thing has ever happened in Ponyville?"

***

Applejack looked up at the sky. The bright blue had succumbed to dark red and purple, and the first glimmers of stars were beginning to shine. The moon was full and round, a bright white disk hanging in the sky. Even so, she could barely see what was in the grass in front of her. Everything was dark- and Applejack felt unsafe.

She was almost at the top of the hill. She looked behind her. All she could see was grass, and the top of the clock tower surrounded by a few distant buildings. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all...

But she had to keep going. She wasn't going to let a little darkness scare her. She was tough, and she was going to BE tough. And Fluttershy needed her. If not even Twilight Sparkle cared, then who would? Fluttershy needed someone to worry about her. Applejack usually didn't worry about Fluttershy, but that's why she was doing so now. She felt like she had to repay the Pegasus. She had always been so kind until recently.

Applejack reached the top after a few minutes of walking. By that time the sky had grown almost completely dark, a dark purple. And clouds were moving in, covering up the many glittering stars. Applejack hadn't noticed them before, but she had been looking at the grass the whole time, hadn't she?

When she looked up, she flinched a little. Just up ahead there was a little old shack, built out of several old beaten-up boards. At first she thought it was abandoned, but she could hear a voice inside...

"Hush, now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head..."

It was Fluttershy's song. Applejack brightened up. If she was singing, then maybe she had calmed down, and maybe she was happy. She might be singing an animal to sleep, or something.

Applejack ran excitedly towards the door, opening it up and bursting inside. "Fluttershy!" she said. "Fluttershy...I've been lookin' all over for you!"

There was no answer. Applejack could see Fluttershy's figure in the dim light. Wherever the light was coming from.

"Uh...Fluttershy?"

Suddenly, the door slammed shut on Applejack's ponytail.

"Ouch! Ugh..." Applejack said. "Weird...must be the wind or somethin'..."

Suddenly, the eerie light flashed over Fluttershy's face.

And Applejack could not believe what she saw.

"Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head..." Fluttershy sang gutturally.

Applejack screamed. She tried to yank her ponytail out of the door, but it was stuck.

Where Fluttershy's pretty green eyes had once been, there were now dark, empty sockets, blood and blackish fluid seeping from the gaping holes. The eyes had visibly been, at one point, gouged out- the optic nerves were visible, webbing out in spidery tentacles and moving grotesquely on their own. Her face was a mess of partially decomposed skin, shredded muscle and bone, oozing red fluid and the same blackish stuff streaming from her eye sockets. Her hooves were covered in the mixture of red and black and bits of yellow-pink, giving the notion that she was the one who had done this to herself. In Applejack's presence, her skeletal mouth opened in a hideous attempt to smile, a deformed black tongue lolling on the broken lower set of teeth.

"Hush, now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head..."

Spiritual voices emanated from all sides, Fluttershy's voice intermixed with thousands of others. Booming from the walls, crashing like lightning. Applejack screamed. It was physically impossible for her ears to take in all that sound at one time. In result, she felt something in her ears burst, and slimy blood flowed down her face. Applejack didn't know what was happening. She heard Fluttershy's voice again, thundering.

"It's time to go to bed..."

Her mouth opened, stretches of the black stuff sticking to the roof of her mouth. The black liquid began to stream from her mouth in long vines, solidifying and turning into swinging ropes. The stuff began to come out of her ears, her eyes, her nose...reaching towards Applejack and writhing wildly. Applejack's throat was frozen, and she screamed silently as the tendrils twisted towards her.

When they hit, then Applejack could scream. She could feel herself being engulfed in the tendrils, eliciting a pain like she'd never felt before. It was like acid burning through her skin, a burning cold stabbing into the marrow of her bones. She was being so compactly constricted that she couldn't breathe, and her rib cage cracked with the pressure. And then the ripping started, the tendrils pulling her apart. Slowly, achingly, separating her body parts. There was nothing Applejack could do but scream. Nothing but lay and be tortured- why couldn't she die? She could never imagine this, it was beyond comprehension the agony that she felt. The sweet freedom of death wouldn't come. For eternity, the pain would last...

Fluttershy's body was a mass of writhing shadow tendrils. Applejack's blood splattered the walls, and all around, the booming, repeating chorus...

"Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head...

Hush now, quiet now, it's time to go to bed..."

***

Three days later, Dr. Hooves and Assistant Ditzy's bodies were found in the hospital basement. Their eyes and tongues had been sliced out and their hearts were exposed, each organ smashed into a pulp. Around the bodies were several symbols written out on the floor in blood, none of which could be identified. A message was written on the wall, with English lettering, but was too scrawled to be readable.

An investigation was launched soon after the discovery of the bodies. No hoofprints or any sort of evidence could be found. For long periods there was search for forsenic evidence, but not even the most skilled of inspectors were able to find anything. The investigators were forced to ask survey questions in hopes to find the perpetrator.

After questioning hospital employees, investigators discovered that many said Dr. Hooves had seemed troubled for the past few days. It was also said that a female pony- young, Pegasus- had walked into his office with him the last time he had been reported seen. When investigators asked if anyone could remember who the pony was, many could not. After several interviews, investigators found that there were two other ponies missing- Applejack Smith and Fluttershy Herrings.

After this confirmation, more surveying was done. Employees said that a patient who had many of Fluttershy Herrings' features had been coming in for therapy, with reported schizophrenic-like symptoms. Employees said that the Pegasus had not been seen for several days- about as long as Dr. Hooves and Assistant Ditzy had been missing before their bodies were found. Applejack Smith's period of missing was shorter, so Fluttershy Herrings was made the prime suspect. Search parties were instructed to go out and see if they were able to find anything that could help solve the crime.

The search parties asked some of Fluttershy's closest friends if they knew anything of her disappearance. Even in their disbelief that Fluttershy had done anything wrong, the ponies said that Fluttershy and Applejack had been friends before they'd gone missing. They had also seen Applejack heading up a hill near the far end of the valley.

The search parties traveled up the hill, where they found an old shack. Upon opening the door, they made a shocking find- the walls were splattered with blood and dark fluid, and all around there was a scattering of bones and skin chunks. They found what looked like a pony on the floor, with what they thought was an orange coat, but was hard to tell under the bloodsoak. Organs were glued to the wall by a thick black paste- eyes, pieces of stomach, intestines, and even the heart.

The investigators thought that the pony was dead- and that's what they put in the files. But the pony was not dead. Even with extracted organs, loss of almost all its blood, and exposure of muscle and bone, the pony was twitching and clawing at the floorboards. Although they were disgusted and horrified, the investigators listened closely. A gravelly voice was coming from the body's mouth.

"Kill...me..."

The investigators tried to talk to the body, but it just repeated the phrase over and over. Inspecting the body, they found one of the flanks untouched. Tattered, but eligable, they identified the pony's cutie mark- three apples, the same as Applejack Smith's. They had no idea how to rescue the body, so they fulfilled her wishes and killed her by gunshot.

Upon looking around the room, they could not find anything else. Except for one phrase, written on the walls in blood...

"HUSH NOW, QUIET NOW"

It was the same song that Fluttershy Herrings sung to her animals before they went to sleep.

Later on the murder file was named the U.C. investigation, which is said to be named after the lead investigator, Ulric Clark. But it is said that the initials actually stand for "Undead Corpse". It is unknown, but something did happen to the investigators that scared the others. The investigators who had come across the shack later fell sick, with dizziness and fatigue. It escalated to the investigators being delirious. Later on, with examination, they had schizophrenic-like symptoms that could not be cured. When listened to, all five investigators had been reported to be chanting the same phrase over and over:

"Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head- hush now, quiet now, it's time to go to bed..."

The investigators were hospitalized and later sent to a mental institute.

Equestria was disturbed and terrified by the crime, especially since nothing like it had ever happened to them. Equestria was supposed to be a place of complete contentment. For many weeks after there were reports of seeing the shadow of a Pegasus on the walls at night, and an echoing song in the distance. Every report had the same song lyrics- what the investigators had been chanting. What had been written on blood on the shack walls.

The city decided to file the murder mystery as "unsolved" and leave it at that. Every pony in Equestria was forced to move out due to the public reports, and it was never spoken of again. Equestria became a ghost town, and the only reason they gave to the outer cities for moving was the "incurable insect problem". Even if the Equestria ponies stayed out of it, other cities became interested. Equestria quickly became a tourist attraction and a pinpoint for other city's investigators.

The first investigator came alone. A Palamino pony named Ginger Sugar coming from a strict Southern family, she didn't believe in ghost stories. She traveled to Equestria by carriage, as was her culture, and was dropped off in Equestria at 6:30 PM. She thought it would be more of an experience if she came when it was dark.

She hadn't expected it to be completely deserted, but it was truly and completely abandoned. Reading her notes, she saw that the place where the "Undead Corpse" had been found was in a shack at the top of a valley hill. She walked up the hill, unfazed, and came across the shack. It was clunky, and lopsided, wooden with a tin roof, but she was a Southern girl and had no fear of things like this. She entered the house with practically a smile on her face.

That smile vanished quickly.

In the house was a skeletal, eyeless, yellow pony, with many bloody, bulging gashes. The smell of old blood filled the air, and everywhere there were masses of writhing black. The pony lifted her face- or what was left of it- and bared a broken bony mask of a face. Out of her eye sockets and mouth curled many shadowy black tendrils.

"Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head..."

Memories of the rumors came back to Ginger. A scream caught in her throat, she tried to bolt out the door, but found that it had shut. Before she could react, she was being bound with long black tentacles that burned and sizzled her skin. Ginger shrieked, but it was no use. There was nobody there to help her.

The pony in the back of the room fluttered, her wings consisting of splintered bones that were somehow still intact. She flew towards Ginger, the tentacles turning her over and over, slowly crushing her, beginning to needle into her pelt.

"Hush now, quiet now, it's time to go to bed..."

END


	2. PaRTyLanD

**Note: This story is not linked to the previous chapter in any way. The first chapter was about Fluttershy and this one is about Pinkie Pie. It was supposed to explain Cupcakes but I got sidetracked, and it just turned into its own little thing. I hope it doesn't seem too similar to Cupcakes...but I did use a few of the same things, like Apple Bloom in the end...I credit whoever wrote Cupcakes, I guess, for giving me the idea. This chapter is called PaRTyLanD. **

**PaRTyLanD- HORROR ONESHOTS ROUND 2- Pinkie Pie**

FOREWORD

As you might have noticed, in the episode Party of One, Pinkie Pie acted quite strange upon her friends' trying to hold her a surprise party, mistaking their actions for something quite different. She was despaired, convinced that they were trying to uproot her from the friend group. The creepy side of her that we have since entitled "Pinkamena" (as that is her full name, and what she was called before she developed her sprightly personality) became known. Pinkie Pie, deflated hair and all, hosted a small tea party for inanimate objects, some examples being a bag of flour, or a stack of rocks. She talked and acted out the objects, complete with nervous twitches and shrunken, deranged-looking pupils. It was this erratic behavior that inspired the story "Cupcakes", a horror story where Pinkie Pie is depicted as a crazy killer who extracts pony's organs while they are still alive and bakes the entrails into cupcakes.

Whether "Cupcakes" is accurate or not, Pinkamena still does exist. The following entries were found many years after this episode in Pinkie's bedroom. The scrawl was legible at times and almost unreadable in others, but eventually investigators were able to decipher it. At least, that's what we were told. It is unclear to us if any of this is actually real. We can only hope it isn't.

ENTRY 1- MAY 12

Today Rainbow Dash told me to shut up. I was following around telling her about cake embroidering, and there was a lot to tell her, because I have lots of different kinds of frosting. I like talking about that kind of stuff but it turns out Dashie doesn't. I was just getting to how I was going to make a cake for Strawberry Surprise that was decorated with strawberry-flavored frosting berries, and I guess she got mad. She just turned around and told me to shut up and go away, because I was annoying. I don't know why she did that, but she had a mean look in her eyes. It was scary, and it made me hurt inside...I didn't like that feeling.

Maybe it was because Gilda was with her. Gilda is a griffin, and she uses words like "dweeb" and "lame-o" to describe ponies. I don't think she likes ponies very much. The last time I saw her today she shoved me into a mud puddle, and got my mane all wet and tangled. She also kicked me in the shin with her lion paw, and it really hurt. I don't know why she did that. It makes no sense to me.

But that's okay. Ponies don't have to like me, or griffins either, because I have Partyland. Everyone loves me in Partyland. And I mean everyone.

I started going into Partyland when I was a little filly. It's a place only I know about, a place only I can go to. Whenever I was feeling lonely I would get a knife from the cabinet and cut myself; let the blood and sadness flow away. It didn't help but I did it anyway. That way I could be happy when I went back out.

But then something would happen where after I cut myself my vision would get fuzzy. It happened a little after I met Madame LeFlour and Rocky and everyone. Everything would get very blurry and then when my vision cleared away, there was Krel. I met Krel when I was still living on the rock farm.

He led me to Partyland and that's where I met the dolls. The dolls are my friends. And they treat me like royalty, all the time, every time I go. I have been going ever since, even when I'm not feeling sad.

Getting into Partyland is hard sometimes. I have to go into the basement, and the only light there is an old lamp that's in the corner. I always have to bring a knife from the kitchen, because there's a blood toll you have to pay to get in. But it's worth it, because there I don't have to worry about silly things like being respectful or having an inside voice. They always have parties for me, and for me only. They let me wear fancy dresses and dance around and sing songs. They teach me the dances, and the songs, that are in a language I've never heard before. It's their language, and it sounds whispery and leafy just like when it gets chilly and all the trees start turning colors. I like it, and only I can understand it. I sing their songs sometimes in Ponyville, and ponies give me weird looks, so it's obvious they've never been to Partyland. But that's fine, better than fine, actually. I am their one guest, their one visitor, their only princess.

It usually takes a long time for me to get in. I have to sit by the lamp and put my left front hoof onto the desk. I have to cut myself in a perfect line across my wrist, which is hard. Last time I didn't do it good enough. It was a messy cut and my skin was sort of screwed up and shreddy, and the blood sort of flooded out and filled the cracks. Partyland wouldn't open for me. So I had to do it again over the same spot, and it hurt real bad. So bad I started to cry. Krel doesn't like it when I cry. I could barely see through the tears but luckily I got the vein that time, so blood sprayed out like it should. Some got on my face, but once I get to Partyland all the dolls come around me and make all the blood go away and fix my vein. I have to keep the cut, though, and it stings, but once we party I mostly forget about it.

Krel is my favorite doll from Partyland. Krel is the leader of them all. He's gray and raggy, all sewed up through the middle. I don't quite know what he is. He's not a pony or a teddy bear or anything like that. His face is sort of snouty, and he has a few misshapen spikes on top of his head that might be ears, but I don't know. His eyes are faded yellow buttons and he has long blackish claws on his front legs and stands on his hind feet. When he walks his sharky-looking tail almost drags on the floor. He always is the first one that appears when the blurriness starts to clear away, and then the other dolls come next. He stands about two feet tall, a little taller than the other dolls. I like him best of all, because he always tells me things. He makes the blood go away.

And that's when the rest of Partyland appears. Everything turns dark, all black, like a big dark sheet wrapping around us on all sides. Then the Royal Canopy appears, a big gold bed with frosting-looking quilts. There are a lot of dolls on that bed, standing in a big pyramid. They're all scraggly and stringy, some of them with rusty-colored stains on their stitched up faces. The girl dolls have pleated hair and wear fancy dresses, even prettier than the kind Rarity makes, and wear polished shoes on their feet. They stand on their hind feet, too, except I can tell that they're human dolls. I know Annie is the one with the red hair and blue eyes, who brings me cupcakes and tea. Vanessa has long black braids and brings me my royal dress. Sometimes Fiona, the one with the gold hair tied up in big satiny pink bows, will brush my hair out long and straight and put a tiara up on my head. I like it when she does that. Then the rest of them come out, from all directions...teddy bears, pony dolls, human dolls, dragon dolls. And they put on my royal dress, and bring me cookies and candy. And then we dance. All in a circle, holding hands, singing ring-around-the-rosie.

That's what we do on Resting Days. Those come four days a week. The rest of the time are Lesson Days...that's when Krel makes us do ceremonies and teaches me about a lot of stuff. That's where I learned how to speak their langauge, and understand it, which was hard because they speak in their minds. They can be scary sometimes, because if I cry or anything Krel will punish me. So I have to practice not crying a lot, and having a lot of cooking knives helps. Except I have to be real careful not to cut myself too bad because I can only go to Partyland once a day and they wouldn't be able to heal me. One time I cut open my leg and it wouldn't stop bleeding so I had to tell Twilight that I accidentally cut myself while chopping carrots on my leg while trying a new cooking method. She believed me.

When Rainbow Dash told me to shut up today I went to Partyland. Last time Krel told me I had to do a flesh toll when I summoned Partyland the next day because I cried, so it was hard. I carved a flesh token out of my thigh, but I grit my teeth so I wouldn't cry that time. The redness pooled all over my leg, and the place where I removed the flesh was raw and sticky-looking.

Then everything got blurry, and I felt fuzzy all over. But when the blurriness cleared there Krel was.

"Hello Princess Pinkamena." That's what he said, telepathically. It made me feel warm and glowy inside, and I forgot all about the pain in my leg. We sang songs, and we ate cupcakes. Fiona braided my hair.

Tomorrow is a Lesson Day. I have to prepare for it.

ENTRY 2- MAY 13

The Lesson Day was hard today. Krel said I have to do a new thing to toughen myself so I can be queen of all Partyland. He made me come in the morning because he told me he had something special planned.

When I came I cut my wrist in an X shape like he told me too. (He makes me do something different every time.) The spatters got all over my arm...it's a good thing I borrowed Rarity's pink makeup, so I can cover up my cuts when I play with my friends. When I entered I had to be real quiet or else Krel might cut me.

The dolls got on my dress real quick so I could start the lesson early. But they didn't serve me tea and cupcakes, like normal. Krel told me I have to starve myself for a week. I was confused but I listened very closely, because Krel hurts me when he gets angry. He said I wasn't allowed to eat anything for the rest of the day or the rest of tomorrow, or five days after that. I was going to bake cupcakes with Fluttershy that afternoon but Krel said that I would have to cancel that...because his orders were more important than what my other friends thought.

He brought a wooden bowl decorated with symbols. It was full of some thick red stuff. Krel said it was magical elk blood, and I would have to live on that only for a whole week. He said I would have to replenish it once I was finished with it. I wondered how I would do that, but I just listened so I wouldn't miss anything he said. I was scared though because I've never drunk blood before. He made me drink some. When it ran over my tongue it got all thick and cloggy and I choked, and it tasted bad but I had to drink the whole thing because Krel said so. Once I swallowed it all I felt really funny and then I threw up. I started to cry but this time Krel said it was okay. He said it would reshape my organs, to toughen me up.

This whole day I have not eaten anything. I told Fluttershy that I didn't have any more sugar so we would have to bake cupcakes some other time. I know what Krel meant now, about replenishing, because I found a dead elk under my bed when I got back. He said I have to drink two bowls a day. I refilled the bowl and I drank some, but every time I take a sip I vomit. Whenever I get hungry I go to the bathroom so I can drink and throw up in the toilet. I didn't feel like being tough. I cried every time I heaved, I couldn't keep any of it in my stomach. When I was finally done my stomach felt hard, like there was iron coating the inside of it. And it didn't satisfy my hunger at all. But I have to follow Krel's orders.

Rainbow Dash came to ask me why I'm not eating, and I said it's because I'm busy party planning. She even offered me a yellow cupcake. It looked so delicious, warm and moist with chocolate frosting and rainbow sprinkles on top. I took it and said thank you, then ran away as fast as I could. I had to get rid of it before I ate it. I remember what happened last time I disobeyed Krel. He made me sit in the Shadow Room. Shadow tendrils curled around me, piercing my skin, for hours that seemed like forever. And I hated that so much.

I flushed the cupcake down the toilet. I will have to use that toilet a lot this week. I notice every time I drink the elk blood my vomit gets redder; I drank the last sip a few minutes ago and it came up as pure blood. It hurt, too, so I think it was mine. I felt something running down my lip as soon as I had flushed, and I got a tissue to wipe it away. Blood was flowing from my nose. I was a little worried but I know that it'll be okay when I get to Partyland; there it won't hurt as much.

ENTRY 3- MAY 15

I am so hungry. I am so hungry, it is all I can think about. The only thing on my mind is food. Visions of thick nutmeg-rich cake slathered in cream cheese frosting. Crispy-crusted pie with syrup strawberry filling. My stomach feels like it's been stabbed with knives, and I can't tell if it's from the hunger or the elk blood I've been drinking.

It's hard to drink two whole bowls a day. Knowing I'll feel icky and throw up with each sip. My breath is starting to smell funny and I am too scared to talk to anybody. What if they smelled my sickly breath, and came to see what was going on? What if they found the elk? The elk is still under my bed. I have emptied every can of freshener in my whole entire house trying to cover up the smell. Flies buzz in through the open windows and I can't get them out. Yesterday I stepped in something, and I saw it was a pile of writhing maggots. They cover the elk carcass so I have to brush them away to get the blood. The blood tastes worse and worse each time and it makes me throw up a lot more than it first did. The amount that I retch is much more than what I drink so it's taking something from my body, I know. But it's okay. I'll do it for Krel because he does so much for me and I owe him something.

I went to Partyland after I drank a bowl this morning, and sprayed my bathroom with freshener so it wouldn't stink. My stomach growled the whole way down to the basement and I tried not to think of food. It was impossible, of course. I eat so much every day and suddenly stopping is very, very hard. I even had to stop my 80s routine because I barely have enough energy to walk.

Today was a blood toll. Krel instructed me to stab a knife into my arm. Cutting is much easier than stabbing. I had to twist the knife in my skin, and I hit muscle, I think. I closed my eyes; I could hear the whispers already, humming in my ears. I like that sound. Only I know that sound, the Partyland Princess. I am Princess Pinkamena. I am everything.

Krel had a needle in his hand when I first saw him today. Today's another Lesson Day so I have to be cautious and say the right thing. I didn't ask about the needle. I know he'll tell me if I wait long enough. When we got to the Royal Canopy none of the dolls were waiting with my dress. I didn't ask why but I was wondering. I guess Krel knew...since we talk telepathically, he can read my mind sometimes. He told me we were going to take a step into making me a Partyland queen. I wondered what that meant, too. I still kept quiet. Then he made me sit down on a satin pillow and made Fiona pin my mane up.

Annie got some string from a spool and threaded it through the needle. Krel said he was going to stitch me up, like a doll. I wondered if he meant all my cuts, all my scars. But then he made me stretch my left hind leg out. He poked the needle through my ankle, making a pearl of blood swell. He tugged the needle through the other side to make a stitch. It hurt but I have learned not to cry when Krel is around. When he made the second stitch that hurt too, especially because the area between the skin and the shin bone is so thin. He stitched up my whole leg, tugging the string through my flesh. When he was done my whole leg was throbbing, trickling with red blood.

Then he did the other side. I flexed my leg to try and make the pain more subtle but Krel told me to stop. I relaxed and winced. I like Krel but sometimes it is very difficult to do what he says. When he hurts me I cry and I can't help it. I accidentally let a whimper slip. I started thinking about my other friends, Twilight and Dashie and Applejack and Fluttershy and Rarity...what they were doing. Krel read my mind and he hit me with his claws across the face, leaving claw marks no amount of pink makeup would cover up. He said that I should be thankful, grateful that he was doing this for me.

I was relieved when he finished my right leg. I thought we were all done. But Krel got more thread and grabbed my arm, lacing it through the flesh of my left hoof. Tears started to stream down my cheeks and Krel hit me again on the face. He said if I wanted to be princess I had to be more enduring. I bit my lip so hard it punctured. When the blood dripped down it tasted like cherries. I was that hungry.

Usually when I get hurt it only lasts a little bit, and then we party and it goes away mostly. But the needles were slow, and the thread felt strange underneath my skin. He finished my left front leg and alternated to my next one. It felt worse on new flesh, because your nerves haven't experienced the pain yet. I chewed my lip harder. The last one took forever...pain always expands; a few minutes can turn into days. Weeks. Months. But pain is good...it'll make me stronger. Krel is helping me and I try to tell myself this as he stitches up my arm.

Finally he finishes. He ties up the thread and looks at his work. Each stitch is outlined in my blood, making lines down my pink coat. I am relieved that he is done. I thought it was over.

But it wasn't. He got more thread and laced the needle through my stomach. Now that...that was the worst. Stomach skin is soft; cushiony. My legs had taut skin, skin that's been scraped and cut before. The stomach...that's a different story. How I managed not to cry out is a mystery. The rest of the dolls watched as he zizagged string all up my torso, making me look like a doll. I looked at their button eyes and knew...they had gone through this. I was a doll now. Every thread being sewn up by a needle, each stab feeling more awful than the previous.

The chest part was horrible. I have never gotten a scrape on my chest before, but that's the place with all the bone behind it. I cringed the whole way. And the neck...I thought he might get an artery. He stopped right at the base and moved onto my chin. He was going to stitch my face. And he did, on my nose, over the scrapes, not caring that it was raw there. All the way up my forehead to my pink hair. Then it was over for real.

Krel didn't say anything after he was done. He dropped the needle and said my time was up. He said next time I summoned him I had to pay a skin toll, a token out of my arm. How would I manage that with all the stitches in me? But I didn't say anything because he might hit me again. Then I was back in the basement, sitting all alone.

Every time I moved I could feel the stitches shift under my skin. How would I go outside like this? I went back up to the first floor to clean myself up; the dolls hadn't bothered to make the blood go away this time. I wondered if they were mad at me too. I licked some of the blood off my hoof, even though it was messy. I was so starving the blood tasted like cherry soda.

I have never tasted my own blood before, or at least in such a large amount, but it's loads better than the elk blood. I couldn't resist. Right now the pain mixed with the hunger is making me want the elk blood more than anything, just for something to put in my mouth and swallow, even if it does make me throw up. I wish I could become the Partyland Queen already, I want to be it real bad. Then maybe Krel will stop hurting me.

ENTRY 4- MAY 17

The hunger is incredible. Everything looks like food. The water running from the sink looks like food. The pink-painted walls look like food. I am tempted to tear out a chunk of plaster and chomp it down.

My stomach is so hollow it feels like it's caving in on itself. It feels like it's twisting over a knife, long past the stages of growling. I don't know if five days of not eating is this bad, but the elk blood is surely making it worse. It's forming a hard iron ball deep in the pit of my gut. I find myself throwing up blood even when I haven't just taken a dose.

First I thought it was bad that I had to drink two bowls a day, and now I'm disappointed it's only two bowls. I drink one in the morning and one at night, just to regulate things. I wish I could have a plate of cupcakes...

I remember when I used to bake cupcakes for all my friends. Go out for donuts with them. But that's over for now. With all these stitches in my skin I can't go outside. I had to nail up all my doors and post a note on my door saying I'm on vacation. Hopefully no one will get suspicious and intrude, but since this morning I have gotten eight phone calls. And I couldn't answer any of them. I was in too much pain to get up anyway. I drink the elk blood and then the pain from drinking it is too much to take...in between the intakes and Partyland the only thing I do is scrunch up in a ball and try to make the pain go away. I can feel the stitches stretch underneath my skin when I do that.

At one point I got up and looked at myself in the mirror. My pink hair is falling all over my face, like deflated cotton candy. Blood stains the outer rim of my stitches, which have turned purple and swollen. My eyes have bags under them and my stomach looks sunken; rigid. And then I have to eat again. I just have to. I grab the bowl and go to my room to get more elk blood. I'm surprised it hasn't dried up by now, but that was probably Krel's doing. Krel probably cast a spell over it.

When I get to the room I have to spray more freshener because the elk carcass is still rotting away. The peachy smell of the freshener is foodlike and it makes my mouth water. I look at the elk carcass. I don't want it here...I don't even know how it got here. The elk was alive once. We could have been friends. Friends are much better than carcasses, don't you think?

But even covered with maggots I still know what the elk is. Right now, I am starving, stitched up and bleeding,and it looks like one thing.

Meat.

I can't stop myself. Instead of taking blood like normal I rip a hunk of the elk's hide off. I don't care if it's rotting. It's solid food. I eat ten whole chunks, ignoring the sour taste. When I realize what I have done I start to cry because I know Krel will be mad at me. He's going to punish me again. But I had to do it. Anyway it can't be much longer until I'm Partyland Queen.

Yesterday Krel let us have a Resting Day. He said from now on we're only going to do Lesson Days so I better get used to it. The whole time we danced around I could feel my stomach's emptiness, begging for food. They didn't serve me cupcakes so it was all I was thinking about. Even the new dress they made didn't make me happy. I smiled and sang with the rest of them but my voice sounded hoarse. Each little movement made my stitches twinge.

But once I'm Partyland Queen things will be over. I will stop having to please two sets of friends. I will stay in Partyland forever, a place where I can be myself and not have to worry about anything. We will only have Resting Days when the time comes. Eternal Resting Days, eating cupcakes and drinking tea and dancing all day long, singing the ring-around-the-rosie song. It will be perfect.

I go to Partyland a little earlier than normal today. I have to get rid of the pain; the hunger. I go to the basement, shutting the door and locking it. Once I'm down by the lamp I make a slash across my wrist and the blood lashes out, splatters the desk. I had to be careful not to cut a stitch or else Krel would have to start the whole ceremony over again. I wonder what he's going to do today.

Krel comes much more quickly than normal. Right when the blurriness starts. He doesn't even wait for me to regain my vision; he just pulls me along. I notice his claws are stained with redness. Thick, gloppy redness.

I am very confused. I do not know where we are going. Everything becomes dark, like the air is misted with black. He says we have to start the ceremony quickly today. He says this is the second step into making me their doll queen. I don't know what that means but I am too much in pain to say anything. I can't see anything at all. Only Krel, and it's through blurry eyes.

I can't think. I can see movements in the corner of my eye. Something's being clasped around my wrist, both my wrists, and then my ankles. Something rustles behind my ears, and my vision is totally shut off as a ribbon of cloth slips over my eyes. It's a blindfold, and I can feel it's being applied by doll's hands. The hands feel wet and sticky, and I have a feeling they are soaked in blood. Like Krel's were.

I can hear Krel. He's speaking telepathically, talking to me. Or at least I think he's talking to me. Maybe he's talking to the whole group, to everyone. He says that the dolls have to work carefully, or it won't work. I can hear the whisper of them as they reply. I can hear patter of doll feet. A metallic sound, hissing through the air. The clattering sound of something metal.

I can feel them swarm around me, circling. Krel's voice booms through the blackness, from behind me. He says to start on the back left. Back left...

And that's when I feel it. Something sharp cutting into the top of my thigh. Burrowing deep into my skin, slicing through the layers like butter. I jerk in the clasps, and I hear from the rattling that they are chains. They are going much deeper than normal. I can feel the blade jab into the tenderness of muscle.

It hurts. It hurts and I can't help it; I can't see anything and I can't move and I have to scream. Krel comes over and tells me if I scream, they might do something wrong. And I won't be Partyland Queen. And that makes me scared because if I'm not Partyland Queen then I won't be anything. I need to be tougher. I have to be the Queen of Partyland...I have to...it's the only thing I can be.

I can feel the gush as they split through veins, the painful loosening as they snap tendons and separate meat from bone. They are cutting my leg off, working away at it with a knife. They slide the knife back underneath inches of skin over my bone, and I grit my mouth shut, a primal strangled noise coming from my throat. They hack away at my knee bone, cracking it and sending splinters into my already-wounded flesh. I squirm around, jerking at the chains, my mind in a trance. I can hear myself screaming, pleading, begging them to stop. To not cut anymore. But they don't listen. It's as if I'm not there. I feel and hear the sickening crunch as they shatter the bone layer, knife through the marrow, and saw the rest of the way down.

I don't know how long it takes. It doesn't matter. All I know is that it hurts, more than anything. The hunger, the stitches, and now this...it is the worst pain I've ever felt. I can feel bile rise up in my throat and I feel sick, but I won't throw up. No. The Queen of Partyland won't throw up because of pain. I have to bear it.

At one point I black out. And this is what saves me. I would never have survived through the second leg. I can feel the pain but it's not as much. And when I wake up again, they have removed the blindfold and the chains and I am done.

I look up. And I have to look down again. They have cut off my legs through the middle of my thigh, but they left a good six inches of bone sticking out through the end of each one. Krel says that they're going to give me doll's legs. The dolls all gather around me again. They're carrying something.

They're doing something with my legs. It takes a long time and it hurts. I don't want to watch and I can't anyway- black circles are swirling in front of my eyes. When I finally look up again I see that they've attached prosthetics. They're good prosthetics, ones with bendable joints. I move the stub of my thigh and see that they actually move. How did they attach nerves that quickly? I hear Krel through my thoughts, saying I'll have to start using them right away.

And then Partyland vanishes. Is that all they wanted to do? Saw my legs off? I close my eyes as the pain throbs. I try to get up but it's impossible; every time I put weight on my back legs- or what's left of them- the prosthetics press into the bare exposed wounds and I have to stop. I have to drag myself up the basement stairs. It takes me fifteen minutes and by then, since I haven't eaten anything for five days, my muscles seem to stop working, and I lay on the floor, wallowing in pure anguish.

The rest of the day is awful. It drags on, mocking me, never ending. I drink my bowl of blood and then I collapse onto the floor. I can't go to bed, it saps too much energy out of me. And I can't stand being around the elk and flies and maggots anymore. I bite into a pillow, hoping it will stop the pain but it doesn't. Tears run down my cheeks and sting my wounds; sting the stitches. I cry thinking about everything. I want to eat cupcakes with Fluttershy, or go to the spa with Rarity. I want to go hay-riding with Applejack. Read with Twilight and chase Dashie around. But I can't. I'll never see them again. I'll have just a few more lessons and then I'll become Partyland Queen.

But then I remember why I came to Partyland in the first place. In Partyland they all love me and treat me like a princess. In Ponyville they sure don't treat me like a princess. Remember when Dashie told you to shut up? Remember how Twilight didn't believe in your Pinkie Sense, how she followed you around all day just to shun you? How Applejack wouldn't let you buck apples with her because she said you were being too hasty...or when Rarity wouldn't let you come inside when she was curling her hair...or when Fluttershy couldn't come to the party because she was busy with her animals?

It'll all be okay. The pain will go away. I'll go to to Partyland forever and it'll be an eternal Resting Day. Only two more days of this and I can eat again. Only two more days and I'll be Partyland Queen.

ENTRY 5- May 19

Today is the day. Today my existence in Ponyville stops. I am to become a doll, a member of Partyland. My spirit will be transferred today and I have to get ready.

Yesterday Krel cut off my front legs, so that's why I didn't write. I could barely walk (I had just started using the back prosthetics) so I couldn't get out my diary. Today I can walk though. I look funny but I can still walk. I wonder why Krel stitched up my legs if he was only going to sever them? But he is much smarter than I am, so I shouldn't question him.

I have one more lesson to do. It's a very important lesson.

Krel said to properly turn me into a doll he has to have a sacrificed pony spirit. Which means I have to bring another pony into Partyland. I didn't like the sound of that because only I want to know about Partyland, but I'll do whatever it takes.

Anyway after thinking about it I realize that it is actually a good thing that another pony is coming into Partyland. I was worried that they might become another princess like me but Krel says I don't have to worry about that; their spirit will be eternally bound to Partyland, and they will be my servant. Isn't that exciting? They'll be there with me forever and ever. With me, in the Eternal Resting Day.

I have almost forgotten about my hunger because I am so excited. Well, I guess this is my last entry. From now long I am living in Partyland.

-Sincerely,

PRINCESS PINKAMENA DIANE PIE (SOON TO BE QUEEN PINKAMENA DIANE PIE)

000

Apple Bloom was standing in the middle of Sugarcube Corner. It was eight 'o' clock and everyone was inside having dinner. It was getting very dark, the sun dipping behind the hills and bleeding red and violet all over the horizon. She couldn't see the moon- it was covered by dense purple clouds.

Pinkie Pie had told her to come here at precisely eight 'o' clock. She hadn't said why, but she said it would be fun. Apple Bloom squinted in the dim light as she remembered the sight of Ms. Pinkie. She had been wearing a long, dark-magenta velvet cloak that covered her face and most of her body. And when she walked away, she hobbled like an old mare. Usually Pinkie wore nothing at all, being very fidgety about clothing, and bounced happily away when she left. So it was very strange. But Apple Bloom had come anyway. She didn't want to miss whatever Pinkie Pie had specifically picked HER to do.

Apple Bloom didn't even know why she had agreed, but she felt like whatever it was would affect her significantly in some way. Maybe it was the fact that she still didn't have her cutie mark. She remembered how Pinkie had been so nice to her, baking cupcakes and all. Perhaps Pinkie Pie would help her find her special talent. How proud Applejack and Big Macintosh and Granny Smith would be when she walked through the door and was no longer blank-flanked!

Apple Bloom was getting a little tired of waiting. She had already been waiting ten minutes and it was starting to get too dark. And Apple Bloom was afraid of the dark, so Ms. Pinkie better come soon, or she might turn back...

"Hello there!"

Apple Bloom's yellow ears perked up at the sudden breakage of silence, a high bright voice so out of place in the murky blackness. She turned to her right and saw a lithe figure approaching. It was Ms. Pinkie, still wearing her cloak. Apple Bloom wondered if it was a costume.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Pinkie Pie giggled, tossing her head. As she did so the velvety-smooth hood lifted off her head, letting a mass of pink hair bounce outwards into the open air. At first Pinkie's face looked perfectly normal, but then Apple Bloom got a good look at it. She gasped.

"Ms. Pinkie! What happened to you?"

Her face, from the chin up, was zigzagged with faintly swollen bruisy stitches. They were flecked with dried blood. Pinkie's blue eyes crossed, examining a stitch on her nose. "Oh, this?" she said happily, as if it were completely ordinary. "It's nothing. I just was running around with a blindfold on and ran into a wall...so I had to get stitches. Just eeeeverybody's been asking me, so I decided to wear a hood to cover it all up. I found a cloak in my closet and I wanted to wear it as soon as I saw it." She twirled around in the cloak, sending it flying up around her hooves. Her hooves looked strangely stiff. "Isn't it pretty? It matches my mane. It makes me look like a witch, see?" She laughed as she spun around unevenly.

Apple Bloom blinked. Ms. Pinkie sure was weird sometimes. Why would she be running around with a blindfold on?

"So...Ms. Pinkie, what are we doing?" She kicked up a small puffy cloud of dust with her hoof. "Ah mean...ah came all the way out here, so...we should probably get goin', shouldn't we? Are we gonna bake cupcakes?"

Pinkie Pie's eyes widened at the mention of cupcakes, and Apple Bloom thought she detected a thread of saliva on Pinkie's lip. But Pinkie snapped out of it and shook her head, flogging hot-pink hair everywhere. "No, better. I'm gonna take you to a special place. Here, follow me." She trotted off, not even checking to see if Apple Bloom was keeping up.

Apple Bloom was very perplexed. Where was Pinkie leading her off to? She caught up with Pinkie Pie...which wasn't very difficult, considering Pinkie Pie's limping gait.

Pinkie Pie was very silent as they walked. Usually she'd be jabbering her mouth off by now, talking about frosting cakes or how to bake chocolate-chip muffins with rainbow swirl, but her mouth was indeed shut. Apple Bloom wondered if she should have informed Applejack of her whereabouts. She didn't usually go off without telling someone what she was doing or where she was going. She was beginning to feel a little bit guilty.

Pinkie Pie ended up leading her to her house. Pinkie Pie opened the door, stopping it on one hoof to let Apple Bloom through. "Come on in," she chirrupped, flicking her cotton-candy tail back and forth. Apple Bloom was immediately blasted with the scent of peach. It was as if the whole house had been coated in a strong peachy scent. She coughed a little, the aroma-thick air stifling her breathing. Pinkie Pie didn't seem to notice.

Once Apple Bloom stopped coughing she looked up with watery eyes. She expected to see the kitchen full of flour and sugar and mixing bowls, but the kitchen was spiffy clean. In fact, it looked like it hadn't been used for days. She looked at Pinkie for answers, but the pale pink mare was fiddling with a doorknob across the hall. Apple Bloom trotted over, tilting her head in bewilderment. It didn't look like Ms. Pinkie was very apt with opening doors. She reached upwards with a stout yellow leg and clicked it open.

"So, uh...what're we doin'?" Apple Bloom asked. She looked into the open door. It was pitch-black dark, so dark she couldn't even see to the bottom. The shaft of soft light from the outside lit up an old dusty stairway that seemed to go on endlessly. The little filly shivered. She didn't want to go in THERE.

Pinkie Pie didn't seem to be afraid at all. She was still all smiles, looking into the gaping doorway like it was a chocolate cake. "I want to show you something really amazing," Pinkie said. She placed a hoof on one of the steps, and gave a sharp creak. "Don't worry...it's just my basement. I've been down here a million times. There's no spiders down here or anything."

That didn't sound convincing to Apple Bloom. This place looked like a genuine breeding ground for spiders...and other creepy crawly things Apple Bloom didn't want to think about. She was starting to get a little doubtful. And a little frustrated.

"Ms. Pinkie," Apple Bloom said as the mare descended another step. "Ah just don't understand. Why did you pick me out of all ponies, and why aren't you tellin' me what's goin' on?"

Pinkie kept going, so Apple Bloom followed her. The groans coming from the stairs made her cringe but down she went...she didn't want Pinkie Pie thinking she was a scaredy-cat. "And why didn't you bring summa your other friends? I'm just a filly. Ah don't see why you'd want anythin' to do with me..."

Suddenly the door shut behind her. Apple Bloom yelped. All traces of light disappeared. She couldn't see anything...it felt like blobs of darkness were pushing down on her eyes. She began to panic. "Ms. Pinkie!" she yelled and galloped forward, making the steps squeak and shift underneath her. She couldn't tell where she was going. "Ms. Pinkie...where are you?"

A voice called through the darkness. "Relax, I'm right here."

Then a light turned on, and Apple Bloom could see Pinkie Pie standing next to a desk at the bottom of the stairs. The light was emanating from an old desk lamp, the kind with the adjustable dome top. Now that there was light, Apple Bloom could see that the floor was sheeted with dust and grime.

Apple Bloom tried to compose herself, and walked the rest of the way down even though her heart was still beating fast. She didn't exactly want to put her hooves on that dirty floor but she did anyway. It felt wet and sticky in some places like someone had spilled something. "Ms. Pinkie...what're ya'll doin' down here? Why is it so dark? Can we please turn on some lights or somethin'?" She joined Pinkie Pie over by the lamp.

Pinkie Pie smiled. It looked spooky in the faint light and it made Apple Bloom's spine tingle. "Oh, you'll see." She opened the desk drawer and started rummaging around. "I'll have you know, Apple Bloom, that you are VERY lucky...you should be VERY happy that I picked YOU to come down here." Apple Bloom noted that Pinkie Pie had avoided answering every one of her questions.

"Ms. Pinkie, I don't think..."

"Hold out your hoof." Pinkie was still looking through the drawer.

Apple Bloom blinked stupidly. "Wh...what?"

"Hold out your hoof. Your left one, wrist side up."

Apple Bloom did so. "Uh...but...why?"

A grin appeared on Pinkie's petite face. "Ah, here we are." She stopped rummaging through the drawer, pulling something out that Apple Bloom didn't catch. Pinkie Pie latched on to her hoof, grasping it hard. Apple Bloom tensed...Pinkie's hoof was firm and unyielding. Like it was fake. And then Pinkie Pie lifted something into the air- something shiny. It was what she had been searching for in the desk drawer. And now Apple Bloom saw what it was.

A knife.

Apple Bloom's heart quickened, not at first registering the situation. "Uhh...Ms. Pinkie...what're you doin'?" She stared at the knife. It was the kind you used for cooking, for chopping up things. Slicing things. Straight on one edge and curved on the other.

"Well, you see, Apple Bloom...there's a toll you have to pay to get into the place." She brought the knife close to her mouth, running the blade over her lips. "It's nothing big. You just have to give up a little blood and then it'll be over."

Apple Bloom's eyes grew wide; her mouth dropped open. "Bl-blood?" She looked at the knife, at her extended wrist, at Pinkie's stitched-up face. Tears formed in her eyes, and she tried to wrench out of Pinkie Pie's grip. "M-Ms. Pinkie...I want to go home!"

Pinkie Pie shook her head. "No, you can't. You have to come to Partyland with me. I'll never be Queen then." She pressed the cold blade to Apple Bloom's skin, making her squeak. "Don't worry. It'll be fine. It only hurts for a little while."

"Ms. Pinkie...please let me go...I want...to go home to the farm..."

Pinkie Pie shook her head. "Nope. Can't let you do that." She turned the knife onto the tip, and pressed it harder so it sank into Apple Bloom's skin. The small filly began to sob.

"Ms. Pinkie, STOP!" She yanked her arm away momentarily, ripping a thin scratch through her flesh. She fell over her hooves trying to run for the stairs, but Pinkie Pie caught up with her and pushed her back towards the lamp. She shook her head.

"Jeez Louise, Apple Bloom...if you keep moving I'll do it wrong and have to start over."

Apple Bloom choked as Pinkie Pie turned over her arm again, holding her at the shoulder so it was impossible to move. "Ms. Pinkie...Ms. Pinkie, please don't!" Tears ran down her cheeks and plipped onto the floor.

Nonetheless Pinkie Pie jabbed the blade into her skin again. "Hold still...this'll only take a second."

Apple Bloom began to protest but Pinkie Pie had already jammed the blade into the tender flesh and slit open her wrist. Blood sprayed, scarlet drops hitting the desk. Apple Bloom shrieked, twisting her arm in pain. Pinkie Pie looked at the glistening wound, and blew air out of her mouth. "Tch...you flinched. I have to do it again."

"No! Don't do it again! Please don't do it again!" Pinkie Pie positioned the blade over the raw split skin, and pressed the blade into the thin layer that was left. _Slit_.

"AAAH!"

Pinkie Pie sighed. "You moved again! Silly Apple Bloom...if you had just stayed still the first time, your vein would be severed nicely. But look at it now, it's all torn up! Silly Apple Bloom." _Slit_. Apple Bloom's narrow wrist bone cracked as the knife blade careened through it. Apple Bloom shrieked again. Blood splurted up into the air, leaving blots on Pinkie's cheeks and forehead.

"There!" Pinkie Pie said to Apple Bloom's trembling figure. The yellow filly had crumbled to the floor and was now looking at her mutilated wrist in horror. "That wasn't so bad, was it? Here, now I'll do me." Pinkie Pie held the blood-laden knife over her cheek instead of her wrist, and slashed it blood burbled as it flew from her skin. Apple Bloom's shoulders jerked as some splattered her face.

Apple Bloom looked at Pinkie Pie with huge tear-filled amber eyes.

"Please, Ms. Pinkie...ah did what you wanted...ah want to go home now..."

Pinkie Pie shook her head. "Oh no! The fun's just started. Krel will be here any minute now..."

Apple Bloom's vision was beginning to go blurry. She wondered if she would faint. But Pinkie Pie didn't seem to be doing anything more with the knife...that was good...maybe she could trick Pinkie into letting her upstairs. She turned her head towards the direction of the stairwell, but it was no good. Her vision swayed, and everything became undefined and vague.

"M-Ms. Pinkie...what's happenin'...?"

"Shhhh."

Apple Bloom shut her eyes, dizziness overcoming her. She felt very listless, and she assumed it was from loss of blood. She wondered if she would bleed to death. Down here in Pinkie's basement where no one knew where she was. Tears started to fall down her cheeks again. She should have never trusted Pinkie Pie. Why did she have to be so stupid?

After a few minutes, a dull humming filled her ears. It sounded like hissing air. It became steadily louder until Apple Bloom thought it would swallow her whole. She opened her eyes, and everything was so blurry that Pinkie Pie was nothing but a pink smear.

"Ms. Pinkie?" Her voice sounded like it was underwater. "Can I go upstairs...now?"

Pinkie Pie giggled. "Yippee! He's here! He's here! Look, Apple Bloom...didn't I say so? It's KREL!" She gestured with her hoof. Apple Bloom blinked. Her vision was starting to come back into focus.

And there was a doll.

Apple Bloom hobbled backwards, feeling a little nauseous. She examined her wrist...it seemed to have stopped bleeding. But how? "How did...that get there?" It was true...the doll had appeared out of nowhere. It was not a pretty doll. It had a sort of monstrous look about it, with clawed paws and blank button eyes. It had no mouth or nose to speak of, and its head consisted of lopsided spikes that had been sewn by someone with a wobbly hoof.

And then...

...it _moved_.

Apple Bloom backed away a little. Sure, a moving doll was creepy...but it could be mechanical. The only problem was, the movements seemed unnervingly natural. And the eyes, the pale yellow button eyes...they seemed to be staring at her. Actually looking at her.

"Th-that's..." Apple Bloom gulped. "Uhh, that's all very nice, Ms. Pinkie...but ah really need to be goin'...ah got to put somethin' on my wrist..."

Pinkie Pie shook her head. "No, silly. You can't just leave when Krel just got here. Come on, it'll be fun. We're going to Partyland!" She bounced towards the basement wall...well, whatever was ahead...and the doll _followed_ her.

Apple Bloom took a deep breath. Okay. Pinkie Pie wanted her to come and play with her dolls. Or whatever they were. Robots, magically possessed dolls...that wasn't so bad, either,

considering there were unicorns in Ponyville. All she had to do was play with Pinkie Pie and she'd let her go home. She just had to play along.

"Ms. Pinkie, where are we goin'?" She followed after Pinkie Pie, keeping her injured wrist off the ground. She stayed on the opposite side of Pinkie, far away from the creepy doll.

"To Partyland, silly!" Pinkie Pie piped. "You're very silly today, Apple Bloom. And you shouldn't act silly in front of Krel. Krel is the Leader of Partyland, aren't you, Krel! And I'm going to be Queen soon."

The doll turned its head slowly in Pinkie's direction. "_That's correct, Princess Pinkamena_."

Apple Bloom jumped. It was like the voice was in her mind, echoing in her head.

She squinched her eyes shut tight, inhaling and exhaling. She willed for this all to be some nightmare.

They walked for a long time. Apple Bloom came to the conclusion that there was no wall, and they were walking into some horizontal abyss. She also noticed that the lamp light was long gone, and yet their bodies were still visible, as if they produced their own light. Everything around them was pitch-black dark, shadowy and echoing. Every hoofstep made a wavering sound against the floor, and she heard long, rumbling, drawn-out noises in the distance. Apple Bloom didn't understand how this was Pinkie's basement. Maybe there was a tunnel inside it...or that's what she hoped. The thought of this made her want to turn back but she realized she would still rather be with Pinkie Pie and the doll than be by herself.

At one point she detected a small sparkling light up ahead. She squinted at it, and it flashed gold. Pinkie Pie noticed it, too. "There's the Royal Canopy!" she squealed, and began to walk faster. Apple Bloom saw that the cut on Pinkie's face had somehow sealed up and shrunk. She looked at her own wrist. It was becoming less deep and the corners were disappearing. How was any of this possible?

As they drew closer Apple Bloom saw it was a heavily decorated canopy bed. The roof of the bed was made of violet silk and the covers were embroidered with designs so colorful and complicated Apple Bloom had to cast her eyes down before she went blind. And, on the bed...there were dolls. A pyramid of dolls, with button eyes and stitchy faces, all wearing dresses. Once Pinkie Pie stepped in front of the bed they all began to move about, standing up and hopping off the bed, toting around Pinkie Pie like she was some kind of...princess.

_Princess Pinkamena._

Apple Bloom looked all around her. She realized that the darkness around her wasn't just the absence of light, it seemed to be a thing, a giant swirling mass of black. An amoeba. She looked down at her hooves. The floor had transformed, too.

So it really was some kind of magical abyss, the work of a very powerful unicorn or other powerful animal...but how had they done it? And why? And how did Pinkie have something like it, down here in her basement?

"Ms. Pinkie Pie..." Apple Bloom started, but stopped. Pinkie Pie was not listening. She was giggling as the dolls fit her into a dress, a dress that seemed to be made of pure gold. The gleaming folds shone on their own, rippling, even though there was no light to shine on it. A large ribbon made of flimsy material tied around her waist, and a brilliant tiara encrusted with diamonds was placed in her nest of pink hair. Where had they gotten all this stuff? It materialized out of nowhere.

Pinkie Pie noticed her staring, and beamed. "See? Isn't it wonderful? I am Princess Pinkamena. Soon to be Queen Pinkamena. That's why you're here."

Apple Bloom took it all in...the dolls, the dress, Pinkie's face. Stitched from the chin up. She was their princess...she was a doll herself.

It was time to escape."Wow," Apple Bloom said halfheartedly. "That's great. Wonderful. Ah love it, but...ah really, really need to go home. Applejack's probably worried about me." Which was true. Even if she was gone for five minutes Applejack would worry. She was that kind of pony.

"No, no." Pinkie said, tilting her head up so one of the dolls could brush her hair. "We're not done yet. In fact, we haven't even started. I'm not Queen yet."

Apple Bloom sighed. "When WILL you be Queen?"

Pinkie Pie shrugged. "I don't know. Krel will decide that. I'm assuming it's once after we've cut all your limbs off. You see, it's all in the process of making me into a spirited doll...we need pony flesh to construct it. A pony sacrifice. So yeah."

Apple Bloom's heart lurched.

"Wha...what did you say?"

Pinkie Pie looked at her with glittering blue eyes. "Well, yeah, that's how it goes. I've cut my veins countless times, and given up flesh tokens...and I've been trained enough. I've been stitched up and I've been starving for a week and living on only elk blood, that turns my organs into doll's organs. And now we have to have a pony sacrifice. And they had to give me doll's limbs, too. Look."

Pinkie Pie nodded at one of the dolls, one with pleated red hair. The doll dipped her head and then, hopping onto Pinkie's shoulder...popped her arm off. Underneath there was a raw, gaping wound where her original arm had been severed. The untreated wound dripped blood and pus, staining the black floor.

Apple Bloom's stomach tied into a knot. "A-ah.."

"Oh...it looks bad, doesn't it?" Pinkie said sweetly. "But Krel has toughened me up. So it's okay. I've filled out my part of the bargain and the dolls have filled out theirs, and, well, it's time for you to do something, too. That's fair, isn't it?"

Apple Bloom sputtered. Her chest rose and fell as her breathing speed escalated. "B-but...ah never asked...to be a part of this!"

Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes. "Of course not, silly! You are so silly, Apple Bloom. You didn't know about any of this, did you? How could you have known?" She laughed.

Apple Bloom's breathing became rough and ragged. "N-no! Don't...I don't want to be a pony sacrifice!" She turned around and ran, sprinting back through the darkness. Pinkie Pie and the dolls merely watched. They didn't even bother to move.

Apple Bloom thought they were letting her get away...but she was wrong. Suddenly she slammed into something. There was a loud snap in her nose. The yellow filly fell to the floor, nostrils spewing red. She clamped her hooves over her nose. "Wh-wha..."

Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie was laughing. And the dolls, telepathically, cackles sounding like rustling leaves. "Wow, Apple Bloom, you're not only silly, you're stupid," Pinkie said lightly. "There's a barrier there, can't you tell? You're not getting away...we need you. Don't be such a wimp."

Apple Bloom lay on the floor, dazed. "B-but..." Her eyes filmed with tears.

Pinkie Pie turned to the dolls. "Go retrieve her." Apple Bloom was still trying to regain sense, off-put by the concussive impact. She didn't know the dolls were dragging her until she was back by the canopy, Pinkie Pie looming over her.

"Ooh, Apple Bloom, you have two black eyes," Pinkie Pie said, and giggled like it was the funniest thing in the world. "You look funny. Ha-ha, look at Apple Bloom, everybody...her face is messed up!" And she laughed again. And when she laughed, the rustling leaves started back up. Apple Bloom realized what they were about to do, and began to scream and cry hysterically, thrashing around on the ground. The dolls had begun to apply chains to her wrists and ankles.

"Let me go! Let me go!" she sobbed. "Please! I don't want to die! I want to go home!"

Pinkie Pie groaned. "Apple Bloom, don't you get it? You're our pony sacrifice. How many times do I have to tell you?" And with that Pinkie Pie stepped back, letting the dolls swarm around Apple Bloom. Krel stepped forth and tightly fastened a gag over her mouth. And then he stepped back, letting the dolls press close to Apple Bloom's small form.

They were all wielding axes.

Apple Bloom had little time to react before the first blade came down onto her right shoulder. The heavy blade sliced through her flesh and her bones became shards in an instant. Apple Bloom was sprayed with her own blood, and she screamed as loud as her lungs would allow her. The axe had propelled halfway through the limb.

She started to flail in the chains, and all the dolls stepped back. Krel signaled towards them. "_Hold her down_." The dolls pinned her remaining legs, and a second axe swung. _Crack. _More blood gushed. Her left leg had been penetrated. Tears and blood coated Apple Bloom's face. A guttural sound came from deep in her throat.

Two axes swung. Her right arm was separated from her body. The other hit her right leg. Apple Bloom's head jerked sideways; more sounds from her throat. Pain swept through her as the axes swung repeatedly, hacking through her body. And Apple Bloom was unable to do anything but let herself be tortured.

For a while, it was pain, screaming, and darkness for Apple Bloom. And then the axes stopped.

All was silent.

"See there...we're done, Apple Bloom."

Apple Bloom opened her eyes. Pinkie Pie was standing over her, looking down.

"Wow. You sure look strange with two black eyes, a bloody nose, and no limbs. Hee..."

Apple Bloom moved her head. Her limbs were gone, leaving nothing but heavily bleeding stubs. Her eyes flickered to the spot next to her. They were all stacked next to her, still dripping blood. Those things...those lumps of flesh...they had once been her arms and legs, attached to her body. A wave of nausea hit her.

"Pl-please...Ms. Pinkie...ah...want to go home..."

Pinkie shook her head, her curls bobbing. "But you're the pony sacrifice. Don't you want me to be Queen Pinkamena? Don't you?"

Apple Bloom didn't respond. She was slipping into an alternate reality, spinning shapes lolling in front of her eyes.

Pinkie Pie started singing a song. "Ring-around-the-rosie, pocket full of posies..." She hummed the rest of the tune, then turned to Krel. "Krel? Is it time now?"

The grayed doll looked begrudgingly at the filly laid in front of him. Telepathic words marred the air. "_Yes, Princess Pinkamena_," he murmured. "_You may eat_."

As soon as the words were consented, Pinkie Pie shot forward, her teeth meeting with the flesh of Apple Bloom's stomach. Adrenaline shook Apple Bloom awake, and she watched helplessly as Pinkie Pie's teeth tore at her skin, the pink pony chewing and swallowing whole chunks of Apple Bloom's hide. The hunger Pinkie Pie had been suppressing for weeks had been released at one moment, and she now possessed the ravenous eating habits of a feeding piranha. Apple Bloom screeched, her vocal cords already worn out, her throat bloody and raw. Being eaten alive by a cannibalistic pony she'd once thought was innocent and naive.

Once her torso had been stripped of skin, pink and shiny, Pinkie started pulling fiercely at the compacted muscles and tendons collected underneath. Apple Bloom was now struggling to breathe, from the force of her relentless wailing. Pinkie Pie would not stop eating. For a week she'd drunk nothing but elk blood. For a week she'd dreamt of nothing but food, envied those who were blessed with the ability to eat. And now it didn't matter if it was pony meat. It was meat. It was edible. And Pinkie Pie now only cared about satisfying her hunger- nothing else really mattered at the time.

Pinkie Pie burst through the muscles, but didn't stop there. She sank her teeth into Apple Bloom's organs, her teeth puncturing her stomach sac and filling it with blood. Red liquid rose in Apple Bloom's throat and poured from her mouth. She stopped screaming and began to choke.

Pinkie Pie ate until she was full. When she leaned back, Apple Bloom had slipped away, her eyes shut tight of her own accord. Pinkie, smiling to herself, turned to Krel. Her face was plastered with blood and bits of meat.

"Is it time? Is it time?"

Krel dipped his head.

"_It is time, Princess Pinkamena_."

The ragged doll bent down, and picked up a blade from the floor. It was covered in freshly spilled blood. He walked over to Pinkie Pie, who was kneeling on the floor, leaning painfully on her prosthetics.

"_Princess Pinkamena_," Krel murmured. "_You are now entitled...Queen Pinkamena, ruler of Partyland." _

He thrust the blade forward, and it plowed through her head.

These entries were found shortly after the disappearance of Apple Bloom Smith. Some of the words had to be re-translated due to the messiness of the scrawl. The only reason they were found is because Pinkamena Diane Pie's house was a prime spot for the investigation. Ponies near Sugarcube Corner had informed authorities that Apple Bloom Smith had last been seen talking with Pinkie Pie.

None of the friends of Pinkie Pie the investigators talked to said Pinkie Pie had ever acted strangely. But, as studied, Pinkie Pie's behavior had always been a little bizarre, even when she wasn't "Pinkamena". She was very naive and had little recognition of the idea of personal space or personal matters in general. Investigators decided to further explore this quality of hers by interviewing her parents.

Her parents said Pinkie Pie had been diagnosed with schizophrenia when she was very young, but it only appeared at times, like when Pinkie Pie was feeling lonely or sad. They said they had gotten it under control, but it is possible that Pinkie Pie learned to hide her schizophrenic tendencies, so it might have actually escalated from there. They also said that Pinkie Pie didn't often talk to anybody when she was young, preferring instead to host tea parties with inanimate objects, ones she gave names like "Rocky" and "Madame LeFlour". This may explain why Pinkie is so naive and why she doesn't regard personal space. She dreamed up what she wanted the world to be like, and doesn't understand common sociability because her best friends were teddy bears and flour bags. Her schizophrenia explains how she comes up with her eccentric inventions. Maybe "the voices" tell her what to do, or she dreams up things normal ponies wouldn't.

The investigators thought that Pinkie Pie was legally insane and that she should have been sent to a mental institute long ago. They were especially disturbed after reading the entries, knowing that Pinkie Pie's "Partyland" could easily lead to her harming someone. They searched Pinkie Pie's basement after reading the entries, but nothing was found. They did, however, find an elk skeleton under her bed, just like the entries said.

They dropped the investigation for a while and named it "unsolved", but later on some more adventurous investigators decided to dig in Pinkie's backyard. The find was shocking. About thirty feet underneath the house was a pitch-black dark room with a spell cast on it. Some unicorns sampled the spell and found that it had once been a very powerful form of dark witch's magic that had deteriorated over time. They also found the bodies of Apple Bloom Smith and Pinkie Pie herself. Even though it had been months since the investigation was launched, the bodies were still intact and the blood had not crusted over. The unicorns verified that the dark magic had preserved their bodies.

Pinkie Pie was wearing a gold dress and had died from a traumatic head wound. Apple Bloom was limbless and her stomach cavity seemed to have been torn apart. However, no dolls were found, of any sort, which led the investigators to believe that Pinkie Pie had dreamt Krel and the others up.

It wasn't until years later that this belief was proved wrong. A landfill about a mile away discovered a collection of ragged dolls when they were digging, ones that matched Pinkie's descriptions...Krel, Fiona, Annie, and Vanessa. They also found a fully intact canopy bed. No one knows how they got there and no pony claims to have ever seen the dolls before. The investigators also found blood stains on the dolls' hands, and it turns out the thread from the dolls matched some of the threads later found on the weapons used to kill Apple Bloom and Pinkie Pie.

The investigation was dropped after a while. Some ponies believe that it was all a trick, and someone wrote the entries and deposited the dolls into the landfill to scare ponies. Others believe that the whole story is true. This probably led to the creation of "Cupcakes". You can believe the former or the latter, but either way, it won't changed what happened in Pinkie Pie's basement that day.

**Pinkie Pie's story. Da-da-da!**


End file.
